Related Stories

You make your child a loving, filling plate of eggs for breakfast. Within minutes, their face swells to twice normal size, their skin turns as red as Elmo and they have trouble breathing.

What do you do?

If you're Robyn O'Brien, mom of four and author of "The Unhealthy Truth," you take a stand.

O'Brien went on an exhausting journey, taking on the food industry, government and big business — holding them accountable for her child's food allergies and the millions of other people who are being made ill by what she believes is the poor quality of food in this country.

O'Brien's book provides eye-opening research and guidelines that may change the way you think about and consume food.

Q: What are some of the important "Unhealthy Truths" you have discovered?

A: The United States is the only developed country in the world to have allowed certain ingredients into our food supply that have never been proven safe. Introduced in the 1990s, these ingredients were designed to increase profitability for the food industry. With no long-term human studies to assess the allergic potential of these foods or other toxicity concerns, they were introduced into our food supply without labels, despite the fact that other countries either restricted their use or insisted on labeling these new food ingredients so that consumers could make an informed choice.

Q: Why do you think the U.S is so reluctant to comply, when other countries have proven food can be made safer and still make money?

A: The United States is the only developed country that does not adhere to the precautionary principle, a governing principle that only allows ingredients into the food supply once they have been proven safe. In the U.S., our stance is that ingredients are allowed into the food supply until they are proven dangerous. Additionally, because a lot of the ingredients used to process foods in our food supply are also used in medication (artificial colors, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives), the task at hand, reducing children's exposure to these ingredients, which have been removed from children's products in other countries, is larger than it may initially seem.

Q: What is the distinction between a food allergy and a food sensitivity — as you discuss in your book? Why is it important to know the difference, especially when it comes to treatment?

A: This is an important distinction given the varying severity of food allergic reactions. And therefore it may be best to consider a food allergy as an immediate, and sometimes life-threatening, reaction in which the body senses immediate danger in a food, seeing it as a foreign invader, a threat, launching an immediate reaction to drive out that foreign invader. But sometimes that reaction can be so severe that it can cause a life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock. On the other hand, a food sensitivity can be thought of as a delayed food allergic reaction that does not always appear immediately but rather can occur over the course of up to 36 hours after an offending food is ingested. Symptoms for a food sensitivity can include eczema, acne, dark circles under the eyes, ear infections and chronic stomach issues. A true food allergy can be life-threatening and require medication like epinephrine. A food sensitivity, if left untreated, can also cause low-lying inflammation also associated with life-threatening diseases. The difference is that one tends to have an immediate impact, the other has an impact that builds over time.

Q: You say in the book that doctors dismiss the idea that earaches, eczema, crankiness and poor sleep could be diet-related. Why is this, and is there anything to be done?

A: We do not have a health care system that is designed to care for health; we have a system that is designed to manage disease. And surprisingly, medical schools, which are largely funded and financed by the pharmaceutical industry, do not focus on the role that diet and nutrition play in the prevention of disease. That knowledge, considered by many as age-old wisdom, is referred to as "integrative medicine" in the U.S., medicine that integrates all aspects of health and well-being together, from food to pharmaceutical solutions.

Q: Briefly discuss the three things you say that you wish you knew three years ago?

A: The most important thing that I have learned is that we all have a remarkable ability to affect extraordinary change in the health of our families. Mounting scientific evidence points to the role that toxic chemical exposure in our food, water and air can have on the health of our loved ones. And while none of us can do everything, all of us can do something to exercise precaution and to protect the health of our families. And just because the United States is the only developed country in the world to fail to exercise this level of precaution at the federal level does not mean that we can not exercise this level of precaution at home, in our schools and in our corporations.

Q: What has changed in our food that is making food a weapon vs. nourishment? You mention FD&C Yellow-5, HFCS...

A: Technology has afforded us enormous opportunity in the last 20 years, from advances we've seen in social media to advances in food technology. With tractors now equipped with computers, a farmer can send emails from the field or correspond over Twitter. At the same time, technology is now used to genetically engineer selective traits into our food supply — crops designed to withstand increasing doses of toxic weed killer or crops designed to synthesize their own insecticidal proteins. And while the promises of these new technologies are great, the truth is that no long-term human health studies have been conducted on the products created. For example, an artificial growth hormone introduced into the U.S. food supply in 1994 was created using this new technology and a genetically engineered e.coli bacteria. Because no long-term studies have been conducted showing that it is safe, governments around the world either did not allow for its use in their dairy products or insisted on a label for this artificial growth hormone so that consumers could make an informed choice. Their concern over this artificial growth hormone produced from a genetically engineered e.coli bacteria stemmed from the fact that it made dairy cows so sick and resulted in an increase in antibiotic use. Other ingredients used in foods in the U.S. have been removed from foods in other countries, including artificial dyes, synthesized from a petroleum derivative and linked to conditions like hyperactivity and cancer. High fructose corn syrup is also not used in other countries due to concern that it may contain genetically engineered corn, another ingredient introduced into the U.S. food supply in the late 1990s without a label and without any human health studies to asses its allergenicity or toxicity.

Q: Dr. Ludwig, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, was quoted saying that we have shifted toward more "fake foods" and it has altered our immune systems. What are these "fake foods" he is referring to and what are some of these immune system changes?

A: "Fake foods" are foods that do not occur in nature. We don't find high fructose corn syrup growing on a tree or artificial colors like FD&C Yellow 5 growing on a plant. These ingredients now found in so many of our processed foods have been engineered and created in laboratories and are primarily used to make food more appealing to consumers and more profitable to manufacturers. Most of these ingredients or "fake foods" are relatively new to the food supply. High fructose corn syrup was invented in the 1960s, artificial sweeteners like aspartame (Equal or Sweet and Low) was introduced in the 1980s. Artificial growth hormones were introduced into our dairy supply in the 1990s. And genetically engineered soy, corn and canola in the late 1990s, too. With no long-term human health studies, we are essentially conducting this experiment on ourselves. And our children, the first generation of children to be exposed to these ingredients since their conceptions, have sadly earned the title of "Generation Rx." And while correlation is not causation, we are also learning that precaution can go a long way toward prevention.

Q: You talk about the scary truth of non-profits, government agencies and big corporations teaming together and leading us down an unhealthy path. How do we fight such a big threesome that seemingly runs the show? Why would our government allow a company like Monsanto to get so big and have so much say?

A: No one wants to acknowledge what a powerful role money can play in something as vital as our food supply, but the food industry is one of the largest and most powerful industries in the world. And the responsibility that executives within the food industry have is to their shareholders — it is their fiduciary duty to drive profitability. And if that profitability can be achieved by substituting ingredients that can be found in nature with synthetic ingredients that are engineered in a lab, it is their obligation to do so, as long as there is no evidence of harm. And with no long-term human health studies, deregulation of these ingredients has occurred on the claim that there is no evidence of harm. But a lack of studies does not mean that something is safe. And just as deregulation of the financial industry resulted in toxic assets, the deregulation of the food industry is quickly showing to have done the same. With recalls and lawsuits over false and misleading claims and safety concerns, we are seeing the same toxic effects of too much deregulation that we saw in the financial industry.

Q: GMO's, Genetically Modified Foods, are on the rise. We've lived without it all these years, why now? Are the healthcare companies running the show?

A: It seems as though sick people are a bigger business than healthy ones. The business model behind the genetic modification of the food supply is brilliant. By engineering selective traits into food crops that only respond to certain chemicals in order to grow, companies have built extraordinary wealth on the sales of their genetically engineered seeds and the chemical products required to make them grow. And while the promise by the biotech industry and the agricultural chemical companies producing these crops has been that we need this technology to feed the world, the only two traits currently on the market are designed to increase the sale of toxic weed killer and to allow a plant to synthesize its own insecticidal protein. There is no consumer benefit at all which is why organizations like the United Nations are emphasizing that in order to meet the needs of a growing global population, we must also address the impact that this chemical system is having on the health of our soil, our water and our planet in order to minimize the harm that is occurring to both the environment and human health.

Q: You were shocked by all the soy, corn and processed foods in your cabinets — most of which are staples in many homes (mac 'n' cheese, Goldfish crackers and chicken nuggets). What did you do to change that and remain realistic about your budget and keep foods your kids would eat?

A: When I first learned that at least 70 percent of our processed foods contained genetically engineered ingredients that had never been proven safe and that were not used in foods in other countries without warning labels, I was stunned. These ingredients, from genetically engineered soy and corn products to artificial growth hormones in yogurts, were in just about everything that I was feeding my family.

With four kids, limited time and a limited budget, I knew that I couldn't change everything without risking complete mutiny at the kitchen table! And so we started with baby steps. We chose one thing to get rid of and that very first thing was that artificial growth hormone (known as rbGH), since it was never allowed to be used in dairy in other countries. And thankfully, we found milk labeled "rbGH-free" in Sam's, Costco and Wal-Mart. We also quickly learned that products labeled USDA Organic, by law, are not allowed to contain any of these genetically engineered, artificially created ingredients that aren't being used in other developed countries.We learned to dial back on the colors, so instead of blue yogurt in tubes, the kids had white yogurt and added some sprinkles. We focused on not making "the perfect" the enemy of "the good." And worked hard to remind ourselves that this was about progress not perfection. We chose one thing a month to focus on: the first month, that artificial growth hormone, rbGH. The second month? High-fructose corn syrup, since our food manufacturers don't use it in the products that they produce for eaters in other countries. Third month? We tried to reduce our exposure to genetically engineered foods. Fourth month? It was artificial dyes, since they had also been pulled from kids' products in other countries. And the easiest way that we found to do all of this was to simply eat less "fake food".

Q: At the end of the book, you suggest some simple swaps. Can you give a few examples of ones that your kids easily took to? Any words of wisdom for families who want to eat better?

A: Instead of frozen pizzas, we made our own with spaghetti sauce and English muffins. Instead of colored yogurt, we went for white yogurt with sprinkles or raisins. Instead of fluorescent orange powder on noodles, we dialed it back, using half of the packet of artificial powder initially until we eventually weaned the kids off of it entirely. We took "baby steps," remembering that you don't wean a kid from a sippy cup overnight or potty train them in a day, that these changes take time and that in order to be successful, it requires a pace that you can sustain.

And the most important thing to remember is that these changes do not happen overnight or without the support of friends. So before you think about getting started, find a friend with whom you can make these changes, someone with whom you can share your stories about your successes and the obstacles along the way, and someone who will remind you that you are doing an awesome job, with what you have, where you are and that at the end of the day, this is about "progress" not "perfection."

Because hope is the knowledge that change is possible, even when it seems hard to imagine!